Victor Rasuk

In some ways, Victor Rasuk's debut role in "Raising Victor Vargas" (2002) wasn't that much of a stretch. Both Victors grew up in the chaotic streets of the Lower East Side, came from outspoken familie...
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British singer Rita Ora has landed a supporting role in the movie adaptation of Fifty Shades Of Grey. The star will play Mia, the adopted younger sister of Jamie Dornan's character Christian Grey, in the film, which started shooting in Vancouver on Sunday (01Dec13).
The Hot Right Now singer joins a cast that also includes Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Ehle, Eloise Mumford, Luke Grimes, Victor Rasuk and Max Martini.

The main cast for the much-anticipated movie adaptation of E.L. James' bestseller Fifty Shades Of Grey has been set following the hiring of Eloise Mumford as Kate Kavanagh. Mumford has signed on to play sexy student Anastasia Steele's best friend in the film, which will star Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson.
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson has also cast Luke Grimes as Christian Grey's brother, Elliot; Victor Rasuk as Anastasia's close friend, Jose; and Jennifer Ehle as her mother, Carla.

Paramount via Everett Collection
Yesterday, Fifty Shades of Grey added another relatively unknown actor to a cast already filled with unfamiliar faces. Victor Rasuk (above) has signed on to play José Rodriguez, the third part of the Christian Grey/Anastasia Steele love triangle. While not necessarily a huge character, José does act as a foil to Christian, and stands as a barrior between him and Anastasia – Basically, he's Jacob from Twilight (for those of you who haven't read Fifty Shades). So, while we are excited that the film is obviously moving along, we're a little bit underwhelmed with the decisions the production crew is making, including the cast and the screenplay (kind of major aspects of a film). Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more apparent that this story would have been best left in the novels. But, since the film is happening, we're counting down the ways in which Fifty Shades of Grey could potentially (definitely) disappoint us.
1. CastingAfter many months of speculating who would be portraying the iconic (yes, strong word choice) roles of Grey and Steele, we seemed to have finally gotten our answer when Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam were cast. While many fans were upset with the choices, Hunnam helped to soothe the tension by explaining that his chemistry with Johnson was "tangible." Okay, fair enough, awesome chemistry can go a long way in making a movie about sex. However, Hunnam soon left the film, and needed to be replaced very quickly. Enter Jamie Dornan, the Irish actor who kind of looks like Grey and has even fewer acting credits than Hunnam. While there's no reason why Dornan can't properly portray the wonderfully twisted Grey, it's just that he doesn't seem to have the necessary charisma to pull off such a role. Although, to be fair, not many do. But if you've ever watched a Sons of Anarchy episode, you know that Hunnam has the looks, talent, and charm needed to play Grey. However, it was not Hunnam we got, and instead we have Dornan and Johnson, two somewhat obscure actors who may or may not have the acting chops to pull off these complicated roles. Though, to be fair, we always knew that the main characters would have to be played by unknown actors, as no big name star was going to attach his or her name to an erotic film based on "mommy porn." However, it would have been nice if the rest of the cast could have been filled out with a few bigger name celebs in order to give the movie star power. But, as it turns out, the casting team is instead just hiring more vague unknowns like Rasuk and Luke Grimes (as Elliot Grey).
2. ScreenplayFor months and months, there have been rumors that the Fifty Shades screenplay is a horrible mess. While, at first, there was no evidence to prove this, there are now a few reasons it looks like this may be true. The first issue seems to be the original writer, Kelly Marcel, always intended to push the envelope and stay true to the original text. She confirmed this by saying, "Well, there is going to be a lot of sex in the film. It will be NC-17. It’s going to be raunchy. We are 100 percent going there…We did go through and decide which are our [favorite moments] and which are not. Most of them are in there." However, the studio quickly shot down that idea, releasing a statement saying, "... a rating has not been designated." It was later stated that the studio would shoot for an R rating, a decision that could potentially annoy fans who know that the novels' contents can not be portrayed correctly within the confinements of an R rating. So, after Marcel and the studio clearly did not agree on her script, two other writers, including Wolverine screenwriter Mark Bomback, we brought in to polish and re-write. But, as we know from previous movie disasters, having too many writers can often ruin a film.
3. NarrationWhile many love the Fifty Shades novels (myself included), there are many structural errors within the original text. For one, Steele continually has a running inner monologue where she questions her love of Grey as well as her "inner goddess's" desires (okay, so it's not great writing). But, this may be a tricky aspect to pull off in a film, unless they do so through voiceover – which is a tacky and bad cinematic move. Hopefully, the film will be able to portray the text in a flattering and convincing way. The novel was, after all, a huge bestseller, so there is clearly something there that readers love.
4. DirectingOk, this may sound a little anti-feminist, but during the process of choosing a director, I was hoping for some like David Fincher or Sam Mendes to step and make the film a Hollywood Blockbuster as well as a twisted, yet loving romantic epic, and I wanted that person to be a man. To me, as a reader, Grey was always the main aspect that needed more explorations, but, since the novel was written by a woman, for woman, and from a woman's perspective, he was never completely investigated. But, maybe a male director could change all that and really dive into the male psyche. Unfortunately (for me), the studio went the indie route and chose Sam Taylor-Johnson, a director whose biggest credit is Nowhere Boy, a film about John Lennon. While Taylor-Johnson may very well make this film a masterpiece, perhaps the studio would have been better off going with someone with more experience. After all, they did pick Oscar-nominated producers Dana Brunetti and Mike De Luca to head Fifty Shades, so choosing a big-name director (male or female) would have made sense.
All right, so hopefully I'm terribly wrong about all this and Fifty Shades will turn into a perfectly acted, directed and written work of art. But, until we know for sure, we'll just have to continue speculating about every single new piece of information we get.
Fifty Shades of Grey is expected to be released Aug. 1, 2014.
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Open Road Films
What separates a biopic from any other character piece is that a "true story" isn't necessarily expected to resolve or redeem its central characters. Unlike their fictional counterparts, real people often stay bastards throughout adulthood, submitting in the end to the same fatal flaws that carried with them through their earlier acts. It is the charge of the filmmaker, as such, to extrapolate some meaning from the heap of misanthropy that is, in essence, his or her subject. Be it the wonder, the progress, or even the horror of the featured individual's journey, something must be pinpointed as a reason to remember the biographical story in question. What Jobs does, instead of working toward a reason for us to be enamored with or at least intrigued by the fascinating character that Steve Jobs was, is bank on the simple likelihood that we already know that.
Anyone going into a Jobs biopic has, presumably, an established interest in and familiarity with the founder of Apple, who died of cancer in 2011. But that shouldn't absolve the movie of its duty to prove to its audiences that Steve Jobs is a subject matter worth their while. It doesn't absolve Ashton Kutcher of his responsibility to build a real character, as opposed to just yelling when he's in an angry scene and sobbing when he's in a sad scene. But Jobs seemes unconcerned with its own obligations toward this story. It just wants to tell it.
As such, what we have is two hours of a Steve Jobs seminar. Director Joshua Michael Stern and star Kutcher chatting about Jobs' life and career, joking about his off-putting quirks and offensive hygiene, pulling no punches in discussing his less admirable choices (like abandoning his baby daughter, and firing Apple employees for voicing disagreement). Lucky for Stern, the story Is an interesting one. Jobs, for all his flaws, is a guy you'll enjoy hearing about. But all that is accomplished by JOBS could have been earned by picking up a textbook about his life. And those who have already done so, those who know Jobs' story well enough (those who are the most likely to check out this movie, in fact), will find themselves experiencing nothing new.
Open Road Films
But an even better problem with this method is that it results in an incomplete film. Some of the better biopics that do handle flawed characters like Steve Jobs manage to pull some sense of significance from their tales, affirming that we didn't just spend two hours watching some son of a bitch get away with being just that. Even in the darkest, saddest, most unsettling stories, it is necessary to leave the viewer with something. Something learned, changed, accomplished, earned. The director cannot help if it if the Jobs of the 2000s was the same self-driven man who used people and dismissed ideas in the '70s and '80s. But he can and must do something to work around that. To turn this collection of anecdotes into a comprehensive account, which warrants an ending that is different from its beginning. That's not just cinema, it's storytelling.
And without this effort put in to conform Jobs' life to the demands of the narrative medium, nor the effort to build him into an independently interesting character by Kutcher, we're left with a moreover dull time at the theater. Steve Jobs might be an interesting guy, and his story might be worth telling — that benefit of the doubt is probably the only thing keeping this movie afloat. In company with an external fixation on the man at its center, Jobs might work just around sea level as a piece of entertainment. But what we're looking at, here, is a standalone movie, and one that hasn't put in quite enough work to pay tribute to the man in question.
2.5/5
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Godzilla has finally gone viral with its Godzilla Encounter website. The new film from Legendary Pictures and director Gareth Edwards has launched a website featuring "news stories" that warn us of the first signs of Godzilla. There are only two stories up so far, but with Godzilla's Comic-Con panel happening July 20, we might be seeing more fairly soon.
The film will star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Richard T. Jones, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, David Strathairn, Patrick Sabongui, Yuki Morita, Brian Markinson, Juliette Binoche, Akira Takarada, Victor Rasuk, C.J. Adams, and Ken Watanabe. It's set to hit theaters on May 16, 2014.
As more stories break, keep an eye on the red letters in the headlines. They might tell us something later on.
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How to Make It in America returns to HBO on October 2 for a second season. The series focuses on a pair of NYC-based friends in the fashion industry, doing whatever they can to keep up with the limitless demands of the cut-throat business. Stars Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk play Ben and Cam, who are willing to stop at nothing to make it big. Joining the duo is an impressive supporting cast consisting of actor/musician Kid Cudi, renowned character actor Luis Guzman, and American Pie's Eddie Kaye Thomas.
Source: How to Make It in America

HBO's How to Make it in America is heading back to (not) TV for a second season. The comedy series depicts the severity of the lengths it requires to survive in New York City's fashion industry. Now, the pay network has a new trailer highlighting some of the newest dastardly misadventures stars Bryan Greenburg and Victor Rasuk will be enjoying this season.
Source: Hollywood Reporter

You don’t need to have seen 8 Mile and Get Rich or Die Tryin' to know how Rob (Omarion) plans to escape a possible life of crime in the South Bronx. Yes he wants to make like Enimem and 50 Cent. Only Rob decides to steals some pricey rims so he can russle up the fee to enter a rap contest. Too bad Rob targets the car belonging to local gangster Electric (The Fuguees’ Pras). So a fearful Rob flees to Puerto Rico to hide out with the musician father (Giancarlo Esposito) he’s not seen since his diaper days. But you’re crazy if you think Rob wants some father-and-son face time. He’s far more interested in smoking dope with stepbrother Javi (Victor Rasuk) and checking out the island’s vibrant Reggaeton scene. Rob digs the fusion of reggae and hip hop so much that he ends up jamming with Javi. And their demo soon falls into the hands of an American record executive Jeffrey (James McCaffrey) thanks to Rob’s new crush dance instructor C.C. (Zulay Henao). So Rob and Javi—along with C.C.—head to New York hoping to make their bling-filled dreams come. Only Electric’s waiting for Rob … Someone get B2K back together quickly. As a solo act Omarion’s got no game. He strolls through Feel the Noise with a permanent scowl on his face. Perhaps this is his way of making Rob seem all street. Unfortunately he looks like he's suffering from brain freeze as a result of eating one too many piraguas. And as a rapper his rhymes are weak and his delivery colorless. As the levelheaded Javi the charming Victor Rasuk brings much personality to a role that requires him to be DJ Jazzy Jeff to Omarion’s Fresh Prince. Henao looks good on the dancefloor but nowhere else. A graceful Giancarlo Esposito adds a touch of class to the predictable proceedings though Feel the Noise wastes his time and talent. He’s denied any opportunity to convince us that all will be right between the gulit-ridden father and his estranged son. Maybe it’s because Feel the Noise seems more intrigued by James McCaffrey’s silver-tongued record executive’s courting of C.C.. As hard as he tries the low-key McCaffrey fails from the start to make his kingmaker anything other than just another music-biz slimeball. So you’re left counting down the minutes until McCaffrey tries to have his wicked way with C.C. Come on Feel the Noise? Director Alejandro Chomski certainly doesn’t. He brings no flair or imagination to the countless dance scenes set inside Puerto Rico’s hippest nightclubs. Instead he just drools over the scantilty clad hotties who bump and grind to Reggaeton’s lavicious and infectious Latin beats. Maybe Chomski didn’t bothered to watch Step Up Stomp the Yard or You Got Served to see how he could distinguish Feel the Noise from these other dance-fever fantasies. Even the musical performances—be they rap or Reggaeton—lack vitality. Really you’d expect former Fly Girl Jennifer Lopez to demand more from Chomski and his choreographers. Then again it’s hard to tell how much time and energy Lopez devoted to Feel the Noise. It clearly affords her a chance to pay tribute to her Puerto Rican roots. Too bad you never come away from any sense of what life is like in Puerto Rico even as seen through the eyes of an American. Maybe Feel the Noise could have been more compelling had it focused somewhat on Rob’s relationship with his father but there’s surprisingly very little in the way of bonding between father and son. Guess it’s more important to get your Reggaeton on than it is to get to know your family.

Dogtown centers on three teenagers in the 1970s--Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) Stacy Peralta (John Robinson) and Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk)--who just want to ride. At first it's waves. Living in "Dogtown " a tough and gritty area in Venice Calif. these guys do everything they can to get in with the Zephyr surfers lead by the charismatic owner of the Zephyr surf shop Skip Engblom (Heath Ledger). But the boys are soon transferring their aggressive wave-riding moves to the concrete turning empty pools into arenas of wild beautiful athleticism and revolutionizing a new style of skateboarding. Skip recognizes great money-making potential when he sees it and takes these freestyle wizards on urethane wheels out on the road to show off their skills dubbing them the Z-Boys. The skating world goes nuts. Conventional competitors don't know what to make of their "extreme" ways. Girls are wild for them. And promoters see dollar signs wanting to grab a piece of the action. But what started out as fun way to blow off steam soon turns into big business. Can the friendship between this tightly knit trio survive inflating out of control egos and fast-paced famous lifestyles? Dude that's a tough one to call.
What better way to make a movie about three hot California skateboarders then by casting three hot young male leads to play them. As Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta--the two talented skateboarders on the opposite ends of the spectrum--newcomers Rasuk (Raising Victor Vargas) and Robinson (Elephant) aptly bring sincerity to their portrayals. As the fiery Alva the wild-haired Rasuk is full of bravado taking to the jet-setting life with ease and ultimately becoming the more well-known name. The soft-spoken Robinson plays the easy-going Peralta with quiet determination proving he doesn't have to showboat in order to show how good he is. But it's the more seasoned Hirsch (The Girl Next Door) playing the gifted but ultimately screwed-up Jay Adams who has the harder acting job. As the Z-Boy with probably the rawest talent but nevertheless gives up his chance for fame Hirsch handles Adams' conflicted emotions well. Ledger too does a nice job as Skip Engblom the boys' "mentor" who introduces them to a whole new world rides a great meal ticket for awhile--and then loses it all when the boys move on to bigger and better things. Sorry Skip.
Coming off the heels of his award-winning 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys writer Stacy Peralta decided he wasn't quite done telling his Z-Boy story trying his hand at dramatizing the whole experience. This time around he elicits the help of director Catherine Hardwicke whose disturbing indie Thirteen proved she can get underneath a teenager's skin. Smart move. Her documentary style of filmmaking with that grainy handheld feel fits the Lords of Dogtown milieu perfectly. The camera chases after the boys as they skate sneak onto private property to surf empty pools and rock like rock stars. Peralta also calls upon his old buddies to help out including the now world-renowned skating champion Tony Alva who choreographs many of the stunts and apparently teaches the actors not only to skate but skate in true Z-Boy fashion. Maybe hardcore skateboarders will notice the errors but for a novice like me it is a fun ride. The only real problem with Dogtown is Peralta's greenhorn attempts at fleshing out a drama. As a documentary the Z-Boys experience is exhilarating as it follows these real-life mavericks' efforts to take skateboarding to a whole new extreme. But as a full-blown feature film it's a little harder to perpetuate the momentum.

Title

Cast opposite Robert De Niro and Paul Dano in "Being Flynn," based on Nick Flynn's book Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir

Featured in the biopic "Jobs"

Co-starred with Bryan Greenberg as enterprising twenty-somethings living in NYC on "How to Make It in America" (HBO)

Made feature acting debut as the title character in the drama "Raising Victor Vargas"

Co-starred with Orlando Bloom in the crime drama "Haven"

Played Rogelio Acevedo in Steven Soderbergh's biopic "Che: Part One"

Portrayed Tony Alva in the Catherine Hardwicke directed "Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized take on a group of skateboarders that originated in Venice, CA during the 1970s

Summary

In some ways, Victor Rasuk's debut role in "Raising Victor Vargas" (2002) wasn't that much of a stretch. Both Victors grew up in the chaotic streets of the Lower East Side, came from outspoken families (Rasuk was Dominican), and shared a brash, go-for-broke attitude. But where Victor Vargas was forever a teenager stuck at home with his grandmother, Victor Rasuk grew up to become a talented actor. After making his debut in the short film "Five Feet High and Rising" (2000), which was later expanded into "Raising Victor Vargas," the fearless actor was cast as legendary pro skater Tony Alva in the biopic "Lords of Dogtown" (2005). Rasuk, a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts in NYC, showed his dramatic side in the Iraq War drama "Stop-Loss" (2008) and on NBC's "ER" (1994-2009). He landed a major role on HBO's 2010-11 series "How to Make It in America" as Cam, a suave street entrepreneur trying to hit it big, and portrayed one of Steve Jobs' early Apple employees in "Jobs" (2013). As restless as the city he called home, Victor Rasuk always had one eye towards the future.

Education

Name

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts

Notes

Fractured an orbital socket while attempting a particularly difficult trick for a scene in "The Lords of Dogtown."

"If you look at the rest of my stuff, I always play characters that kind of don't look like me, 'cause I love transforming into someone else. I love being able to act, work and act, and then doing it under the radar." - from InterviewMagazine.com, 2012

Is of Dominican descent.

The native New Yorker shot many scenes for HBO's "How To Make It In America" in the same Lower East Side area where he grew up.